I'm tired of my lawn's leaves and gumballs and I'm thinking about buying a walk behind lawn vac. There are several brands. Billy Goat, Cub Cadet, Troy Built and others. Some are self propelled and some are not. Anyone have any experience - good or bad with these? I'm not so worried about the branch chipper part, but think I would like to have the bed hose attachment. They are running between $600 and $1200 for what I'm looking at.

There are wire frame cylinders designed to pick up gum balls. I have no personal experience with them. For all its litter, the sweet gum is otherwise a good tree. Straight trunk, drought resistant, great fall color.

I guess gumball come from when I was a kid, but everyone in this area still call them that. They are a real pain. I get 100s of them and one of my trees was stifled by a huge oak until it was struck a few years ago. Now my Sweetgum tree is taking off. I hate the tree only due to the balls but love the shade and height it already has.

I was looking again last night at videos and stuff. The BillyGoat will pick up cans and bottles (yes bottles!) but it is most expensive.

The leaves are worse this year than in years past. I have wanted a lawn vac for awhile, but the rake was okay and the Sweetgum balls were manageable, but with the growing tree and expanding canopy, it will get worse. Back the the leaves; we had a mild summer and didn't drop leaves in the summer like we usually do. I have as many leaves on the ground now, that I usually do at the end of the fall, and still have as many still left on the trees.

When I was a kid I would be using the weed eater and my dad would not be pay attention as usually and run under the Sycamore with the lawn mower and send about 30 gum balls my way, at about 60 mph. I learned real quick to watch where he was at all times.

Do you ever go back and read your posts and see grammatical errors or find words you just knew you typed? WOW!

"I guess gumball comes from when I was a kid, but everyone in this area still calls them that. They are a real pain. I get 100s of them and one of my trees was stifled by a huge oak until it was struck by lightning a few years ago."

I may go look at a used Billy Goat today. It is older, but has the hose attachment. $400 OBO.

Maybe Im missing something, but wouldn't a good riding mower with a bagger work better? I have a ton of trees in my yard. I just mow the crap out of it and it cleans them up nicely. I also have a ton of acorns and walnuts and it has no trouble picking them up.

I do have a rider and it will pick up the leaves, but I don't think it'll pick up the dang gumballs. I just "mowed" my front yard, driveways and a portion of the back yard with my push. My rider though, I have to convert from mulcher to pick up and when I do, I lose about 1" of cut (height). So, since I cut at almost the highest setting all the time, when I switch to "vacuum" it cuts mucho grass. I can't even make one loop without emptying the bag. Unfortunately, my push is also a low cutter so when I mowed part of the back yard, I only hit where it was low and worn already and actually had it on two wheels at one point trying to blend it.